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Snowden Criticizes U.S. Panel Overseeing Surveillance

Dec 22, 2013 9:29 pm ET

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden criticized the presidential panel reviewing U.S. surveillance programs, saying it was a hand-picked group by the government that only suggested cosmetic changes, according to a Sunday Brazilian TV report.

U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden spoke during a ceremony in Moscow on Oct. 9.

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“Their job wasn’t to protect privacy or deter abuses. It was to ‘restore public confidence’ in these spying activities. Many of the recommendations they made are cosmetic changes,” Mr. Snowden said in an email exchange with the Globo TV channel.

According to Globo, Mr. Snowden corresponded with one of its reporters through his New York lawyer to protect his location. The emailed comments were broadcast on Globo’s “Fantastico” program on Sunday evening.

The presidential panel, which made recommendations to President Barack Obama last week, called for changes to foreign and domestic spying practices.

Mr. Snowden is wanted by U.S. authorities for leaking secret NSA documents that have revealed extensive data-gathering in the U.S. and around the world, including alleged spying on Brazilians that has created tension between the two countries.

According to the Globo report, Mr. Snowden said the NSA hasn’t produced evidence to suggest the disclosures have caused harm. He said U.S. law doesn’t distinguish between a whistleblower revealing illegal programs “and a spy secretly selling documents to terrorists.”

The biggest offense one can commit in the U.S. isn’t to damage the government, but rather to “embarrass it. It’s clear that I could not possibly get a fair trial in my country,” he said, according to the report.

Mr. Snowden told Globo he would like to live in Brazil if he were invited by the Brazilian government. Earlier this week he published a letter in which he called on any foreign government to provide him with permanent asylum. He’s currently living in Russia under temporary asylum.

In last week’s letter Mr. Snowden said he was prepared to help Brazilian officials allegedly spied on by the NSA, including President Dilma Rousseff. But he denied that he was offering information to get asylum.

“I will never exchange information for asylum and I don’t think the Brazilian government would do that either. A grant of asylum should always be a purely humanitarian decision and the letter was very clear on this point: I will never cooperate with anyone outside of a lawful and appropriate manner,” Mr. Snowden said.